Once you have found one useful article on your topic, you can use it to find a lot more! This article will help you enter into the scholarly conversation around your topic, teaching you about the terminology researchers use, who writes about the topic, and what other articles have covered it.
We call this article a seed article, because you are going to grow additional sources from it. Here's how you can use your seed article:
- Identify new keywords: look at the words the author(s) use to describe their research in the title, abstract, and introduction. Use these in your next database search.
- Find cited sources: Look at the sources the author(s) cite in their footnotes, in-text citations, or reference list. Look up the ones that seem relevant to your interests.
- Look up scholars: Search for more research by the author(s) of this research. They might have written about this topic before.
- Use library tools to find more sources: In the EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) or Google Scholar, use the "cited by" tool or "More like this" tools. Cited by will show papers that have cited your article and might be related. More like this shows more research related to your article.
With one article, you can find additional sources!
- Keywords: What are the words the author is using to describe the topic?
- Library Tools: In the Libraries EDS Search or Google Scholar, use the “cited by” tool or the “More like this” tool. The “cited by” tool shows papers that have cited your article. The “More like this” tool shows more research that relates to your article.
- More Articles: The article might cite a study, research article, or book that further explores the topic. Take note of that information and search on the Libraries website to find it.
- Scholars: Your article’s author might write about this topic in other research papers.
